Punjab
Education officers suspended
Chandigarh, may 30. Harjot Singh Bains, the state’s school education minister, ordered the suspension of three officials of his ministry on charges of dereliction of duty.
During a surprise inspection of the Government Primary School, Lambayan in SAS Nagar district, class V students brought to the minister’s attention that they were yet to receive their English textbooks. Investigation revealed that 3,500 textbooks had not been printed due to the negligence of ministry officials. As a result, 2,500 students were deprived of English textbooks.
Apart from suspension orders issued against the three officials, the minister also ordered the district education officer and block education officer to be issued show-cause notices.
Uttar Pradesh
Prisoners good show
Lucknow, may 7. Ninety-five percent of prisoners in Uttar Pradesh’s jails who wrote the class X state board examination passed, while the class XII success rate was over 70 percent. “Fifty-seven of the 60 inmates who wrote the class X examination averaged 82.40 percent, a first-division score. Of the 64 inmates who wrote the class XII board examination, 45 passed with 13 percent scoring first-division marks,” a prison department official said at a press conference.
“Inmates who study in the prisons are given light physical work and during the board examinations, they are exempted from all manual work. Books and study materials are made available to them in jail. Moreover, most jails have libraries from where they can access study materials,” he added.
Maharashtra
Biodiversity study scholarships
Mumbai, may 3. The state cabinet recently approved a proposal to provide scholarships to 75 students over a period of three years for conducting research in mangroves and marine biodiversity in top-ranked universities abroad, said an official statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office. The outlay for the scholarships is estimated at Rs.31.50 crore.
Every year, 25 students will be given scholarships by the forest department’s Mangrove and Marine Biodiversity Conservation Foundation. These scholarships will be awarded to students admitted into higher educational institutions abroad ranked within the Top 150 in the latest annual World University Rankings league tables of the London-based Times Higher Education (THE) or Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). Thirty percent of these scholarships will be awarded to women students.
Madhya Pradesh
Girl child education drive
Bhopal, may 2. Observing Ladli Laxmi Utsav (festival of the girl child), chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced his government’s decision to pay the tuition fees of meritorious girl students from MP admitted into IITs, engineering, law, and medical colleges. “Under the Ladli Laxmi Yojana, fees for engineering, law, IIT and medical colleges will not be paid by parents, but by Shivraj mama (uncle),” he said, addressing a press conference.
Chouhan added that henceforth Ladli Lakshmi Utsav will be celebrated in every city and panchayat of Madhya Pradesh from May 9-15, during which various competitions, programmes and health check-ups will be organised.
Himachal Pradesh
Ineligible vice chancellors
Shimla, may 20. The vice-chancellors of two private universities in the state have been found ineligible for the post after thorough verification of their documents and credentials, said a senior official of the Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission (HPPERC). The commission launched an investigation after it received complaints of irregularities in appointments of VCs and principals in private colleges and universities.
Addressing the media, HPPERC Chairman Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Atul Kaushik said: “Documents of vice chancellors of Arni University, Shoolini University, IEC University, Bahara University and APG Shimla University were examined for verification of eligibility criteria as per UGC guidelines.” The process of removing ineligible VCs was started in November 2020 and thus far, 16 VCs have been found ineligible for their posts, he added.
Meghalaya
Dropouts reinduction programme
Shillong, may 30. Meghalaya’s Samagra Shiksha (K-12 education) authorities signed a collaboration agreement with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to reinduct school dropouts in this north-east state back into the education system.
Addressing a press conference, project director Swapnil Tembe said: “While Assam has recorded the highest dropout rate (31 percent), it is closely followed by Meghalaya (27.9 percent). An MoU was recently signed for identifying out of school children and enrolling them into NIOS study centres with a demand to increase the number of NIOS centres in the state.” Currently, Meghalaya has only 25 NIOS study centres in five of its 12 districts.
Paromita Sengupta with bureau inputs
